Ready, Set, Plan
Maximise your potential in the new year
Hi friends,
Happy new year! It has been an absolute whirlwind of fun and festivities this past week. My heart is so full and warm from all the uninterrupted time I spent with my loved ones. Although it was quite the struggle today to get back into the working mood, I know that I need the slower and more routine sections of life to balance out the adventurous and busy times.
Today I want to talk a bit about planning. Planning is often overlooked these days, especially by the productivity gurus. The general advice is to plan less and take action now - useful advice for people who spend too much time contemplating and are held down by fear or worry. However, poor planning or lack of planning may mean having to let go of some things that you otherwise would’ve been able to do if you had just giving your actions a little bit more thought.
I would say I’m not bad at planning. I’m good at daily planning and at times weekly planning, but I really struggle with planning more than a week ahead. Perhaps I never make time or have the energy for macro level planning or I don’t want to feel bad if I don’t end up going through with the plan. Maybe I’ve been well programmed by the “action-taking” mentality or that I’m constantly looking to move fast and forget that slowing down may be the most productive thing you can do.
What can I take from my micro planning into my macro planning to make it more efficient and useful?
At the start of every work day, I dump all my todos in a messy list then choose my top 2 priorities for the day. In this 2 minute exercise, I can get into my planning headspace real quick and prime my brain to execute on the plan after. The three main things to take away from my practice here is:
Don’t plan and do at the same time
Dump out all possibilities or aspirations during the planning phase
Identify my priorities
At the start of the week, I schedule in different activities without being too attached to those times. I will try to gym/exercise whenever I can. Reach out to friends to set up at least 1 lunch/dinner/drinks/social activity. Take some alone time to write and edit my vlogs. This weekly plan ensures that I’m taking care of my social, physical and mental health while not being too strict with optimising my weeks. This fares well with the idea of short-term vs long-term productivity that Cal Newport mentioned on Sam Harris’s Making Sense podcast.
Short-term productivity is what you do during the day, week, or even month. The checklists, goals and routines. Long-term productivity is achieving multiple great things. Optimising your daily/regular routine may not directly translate to long-term productivity. Having a well-designed macro plan that is tailored to reach those big and scary goals will be more worth your time than perfecting the micro plan. This relaxed but not aimless approach to planning is what I will use for my 2023 planning.
I’m taking this week to do some planning for the year ahead by using the habits that I already do for my micro planning. I want to do some travelling, try out some new activities, continue building my career and online presence. And of course nourish and foster my relationships and my mental + physical health.
What about you? Are you a planner? Have you done some 2023 planning? Leave a comment and let me know!
This week’s collection
💞TV Show: Single’s Inferno S2
This Korean dating show is back and I had to jump on this new season. I’m always so fascinated by how this show compares to Western dating shows and love seeing the different dynamics / drama between the cast members.
🔴TV Show: Alice in Borderland S2
This show is also back with a second season! I’m halfway through S2 at the moment and the games are intense as always. Congrats to this show for being the most-watched Global Non-English TV List series after its premiere on Netflix beating the record previously held by Squid Game.
📷 Software: Adobe Lightroom
I recently asked my friend to do a quick family photo shoot for us since my brother came back for his winter break. I edited the photos using Lightroom and it reminded me of how much I used to enjoy editing. I retaught myself Lightroom and had so much fun messing with my old presets.
In case you missed it: In last week’s newsletter, I shared a list of things that I’m doing less of in 2023
Shoutout to Lex for inspiring the title + subtitle for this newsletter
A question for you!
What do you want to give a second chance to this year?
Always open to learning more and hearing from you 😊
Thanks for reading!
Stay inspired,
Viv